Wifi Extenders and Hotspots

[NapaFoodGal]

What is the best hot spot and wifi extender to use when there is limited or no signal when camping? Do you need both?

[Dennis C]

If you have no signal, then neither will help.

I’ve got a Verizon Jetpack MiFi that I use when there’s no WiFi available. It works well, but obviously requires a Verizon signal. Our phones are on AT&T service, so we have two different providers.

I’ve also got a weBoost cellular booster with a roof-mounted antenna. It adds a couple of bars to a weak signal on either carrier. I’m glad that I have it.

I have a small router that I use for campground or other public WiFi if that’s available. The router passes the public WiFi signal through to all my devices in a more secure manner than simply connecting directly to WiFi on each device.

[uncle_bob]

Hi

Most (> 99%) campground WiFi are useless for anything past email. It's not the signal strength that gets you. It's the lack of capacity on their connection to the outside world. They have the biggest "pipe" they can get from the local ISP, it's probably fine for 20 people. They have it hooked to a hundred campsites. Each campsite has an average of 10 devices logged in ... not going to work ....

Simple answer is: Don't bother with anything fancy for WiFi. If they are lucky enough (and affluent enough) to have enough bandwidth, they will get a good signal into your trailer.

Cell wise, you can go with a WeBoost. It will help some. It will not get you from nothing to streaming 4K conference calls .... More important for cell is to have plans with multiple carriers. You can never predict who will be the "winner" at that next campground.

Bob

[Lily&Me]

I have a one-device WeBoost for cellular, and it does an excellent job.

I use my IPhone as a hotspot when I must, but it is a data hog.

There are other threads here on this, which may provide you with more comprehensive information.

Maggie

[wulfraat]

let's assume you have a signal for something....

Wifi extender / Airstream LAN = Pepwave Surf Soho MkIII.

Hotspot: iPhone / Android device or Verizon 8800L or AT&T Nighthawk if you are using a 4G SIM card / data only plan.

my $0.02.

PS - if this is a foreign language I'd recommend you search YouTube for rvmobileinternet videos - they have some basic sessions for RVs who are trying to learn / figure out how to be connected while on the road.

[centennialman]

I have a WeBoost and a PepWave.....between the two, they have really improved my internet capacity while on the road. I no longer use my Verizon jet pack.

[coasttocoast]

Following

[mgblake13]

Following

[UnklJoe]

We just moved to a small campground in a gorgeous part of Wyoming and found that moving about 1/4 mile caused us to lose ALL cell signals--and we have multiple cell phones from various providers. They weren't all that great in the other place, but we had NOTHING in the new spot.

The Verizon store in Cody, WY, was advertising on their electronic sign they had cell boosters in stock. I bought a WeBoost Home system, because I plan to use in my home when I'm not on the road in the AS. It's a little challening setting it up in an AS, but it's working EXCELLENTLY. I just pointed the outside antenna in the direction of the nearest cell towers and now ALL of our phones and cell providers are working FINE!

We even streamed a couple of Amazon Prime videos last night. Ice cream and a movie under the stars along the Greybull River--it doesn't get much better. Until the sun rises, and then, it becomes pretty spectacular as the sun gets up over the mountain behind us that blocked the cell tower signals from this little campground and lights up the ridge on the other side of the river. Why we love camping in the Western United States--always have and probably always will!

And now with our WeBoost cell booster, we can go more places. I just need to learn how to connect it to my VPN router (which takes care of all of the security for any device we have connected to the router). But, I'm working on it...!

Anyway, WeBoost is our ticket for improved cell service.

As for WiFi boosters for campground-provided WiFi (which as has been said isn't really good for anything more than checking email), I haven't really read about one I like--that isn't pretty darn expensive (or more than I want to pay at this time). There are some good options out there, but they're not for the faint of heart or those with self-limited funds (soon to be on a fixed income....). I don't see the point in trying to "expand the pipe" that is limited at its source. Better to get a cell booster and a data plan that meets your needs. (We still have one of the older AT&T plans with "unlimited" data (that is, until you exceed 20GB and then they can throttle to 2G speeds at their discretion). But, we rarely ever exceed 20 GB, unless we are both working from the AS.

I am a member of rvmobileinternet. I find their reviews to be a little esoteric, and more slanted towards the higher-end of equipment (which I have no quarrel with--the sting of low quality lasts LONG after the sweetness of low price is forgotten). They are all about good service, reliability and high quality for people who are full time RVers or boaters and need service in some pretty remote locations.

My recommendation: Get a good cell phone data plan, possibly one that uses a dedicated device and its own cell SIM card (the Netgear Nighthawk is a good device). My experience in trying to use my cell phone as a WiFi hotspot hasn't always been so good (but--I didn't have a cell booster till now!). Then get a quality cell booster. If you're not handy, you'll pay someone to mount the outside antenna and run the cable in to the AS to the booster device. And, you may pay someone to mount the booster device and the inside antenna, as well. There ARE cables involved, and they WILL be visible.... There is no monthly or annual costs for the WeBoost cell boosters--you pay once for the equipment; that's it. Their newest equipment is 4G and 5G capable! (Your modem/router device may not be 5G capable; the Netgear Nighthawk that is 5G capable doesn't get good reviews on any website that I've seen.... And 4G speed with a good cell signal is fine for streaming and most Internet-related stuff.)

My modem/router was about $99 new on eBay about four years ago. I bought the $20/month data only plan/SIM card from AT&T. With taxes it's $25/month. Haven't been anywhere I couldn't use it (except in Texas--which was strange since AT&T is headquartered in Texas). My modem/router isn't made any more, but it's been a good device, until an AT&T software upgrade I couldn't reject made it kind of a pain....

The WeBoost device I bought (which was overkill for an AS--but will work fine in my home most of the year!) was about $500 from Verizon, but it works with ANY US carrier. There are less expensive units on Amazon and eBay, but I went with one with a warranty and rumored great support. (They aren't open evening or Sundays, for phone or email support....)

Hope this helps!

[romeb]

I use Verizon MIFI with a Netgear MIMO antenna at Horseneck beach where I've been told Weboost does not work. I used up my 5K data so I got T-Mobil with a Netgear router and the same antenna for 50K data. That MIMO antenna costs just over $50 on Amazon and I just hang it in the window and I can do zooms, social media, email. Nobody knows I'm not in my office!

[Daquenzer]

Weboost for cell data. Works for me. I have a portable antenna with a suction cup attached to it that I put on the outside of the AS. Easy to store. Easy to set up. No holes in AS.

Think twice about the WIFI at campgrounds. Most of the time they are worthless. Plus not very secure. Ripe for a hacker.

[RosenBob]

We’ve been using WifiRanger which creates a secure and boosted local network in our AS after connecting WifiRanger to the campground wifi from its local IP address. WifiRanger’s control panel shows all available wifi signals it can detect. That works well if the campground has decent capacity. We are typically able to stream movies as a result. Can also add multiple cell SIM cards but we haven’t done that. WifiRanger requires adding an antenna to the roof which was not too difficult because we already had the Airstream Connect installed. We brought the ranger’s cable in through the same opening that AS Connect was using. As near as I can tell Airstream Connect is worthless.

[uncle_bob]

Hi

We've had a WiFiRanger on the roof for about 4 years. Each year we blow out the power supply. Each year they send us a new one. They have had a couple of up grades on the power brick over that period. I have no idea why it fries. I've designed the same stuff they are using into gear. We never had any issues with it in our designs.

The bigger gotcha is that I can count on my thumbs the number of places it actually has been useful. You either have junk WiFi so nothing will help or the signals from the campground are fine inside the trailer with no booster.

I've gone over to using a little "travel router" and it's done fine just sitting there inside the trailer. Bring in the campground at 2.4 GHz and send out the local copy at 5 GHz.

Bob

[Acheron2010]

This topic really fries my...tires.
Last year, the four major telecom companies made a combined $400 Billion dollars in profit. With a rounding error, they could provide the infrastructure for 26Mbps internet everywhere in the country. Just intolerable.
That said, I use:
Unlimitedville.com T-Mobile internet - unlimited data $150/month. for most places get about 5Mbps or more.
Skyroam Solis-Lite - purchased in Alberta, Canada, where internet now is two moose and a string. Barely worked, intermittent loss of signal, better here in the US. $9-12 per Gb.
Verizon hotspot on my iPhone. Most reliable and fastest of them all, Unlimited plan, about $80/month.

Impatiently waiting for Elon to make Starlink mobile, and I can happily throw all this other stuff away.

Winnemucca RV Park provides free hi-speed internet. Love em.
Reno KOA is located in a basin. They think it is cute to be able to do email.
Guess which one will get my repeat business?

[Daquenzer]

Originally Posted by Acheron2010

Impatiently waiting for Elon to make Starlink mobile, and I can happily throw all this other stuff away.

I know lots of people in rural areas that are impatiently waiting for starlink.

[1StreamDream]

Originally Posted by romeb

I use Verizon MIFI with a Netgear MIMO antenna at Horseneck beach where I've been told Weboost does not work.

X2 for the VZW MiFi (aka Jetpack) with an externally connected antenna. It's not so obvious, but the 8800 MiFi has 2 antenna ports, and this is significant because it allows an external MIMO antenna to improve (significantly) the signal quality. The 8800 is also the older 4G model, I think the newer 5G MiFi does *not* have external antenna ports so be careful about that. I have a more elaborate external antenna, semi-permanently secured on the roof, it has made a significant difference in the throughput speeds in a number of cases. I also have the Netgear antenna, and it is also good, but the roof mounted "stick" is even better. I have the Poynting OMNI-600 HIGH PERFORMANCE 2X2 MIMO LINEAR 410MHZ – 3800MHZ ANTENNA, and it is attached via a marine ratchet mount to allow very quick raise and lower operations. The benefit of the external connected antenna method is that you preserve MIMO capability, I think the WeBoost method is limited to boosting a single carrier only, which also limits the total throughput you will achieve. With the recent data plan improvements from VZW, we now get 50GB/month for the MiFi at $20. I would feel better if I had a second option with a different carrier, but for now we are dependent on VZW coverage for our needs.

[RosenBob]

Originally Posted by uncle_bob

Hi

We've had a WiFiRanger on the roof for about 4 years. Each year we blow out the power supply. Each year they send us a new one. They have had a couple of up grades on the power brick over that period. I have no idea why it fries. I've designed the same stuff they are using into gear. We never had any issues with it in our designs.

The bigger gotcha is that I can count on my thumbs the number of places it actually has been useful. You either have junk WiFi so nothing will help or the signals from the campground are fine inside the trailer with no booster.

I've gone over to using a little "travel router" and it's done fine just sitting there inside the trailer. Bring in the campground at 2.4 GHz and send out the local copy at 5 GHz.

Bob

Interesting. We’ve never had a problem with the power supply over two camping seasons, about 5 months living in the AS. Makes me wonder how you wired yours. We continue to like ours. Even if it’s only useful in campgrounds where boosting is not really needed, the control panel and ability to log into the campground wifi in one place to give all our devices access to our local AS wifi, that’s worth having to me. You are no doubt more savvy about setting up local networks than I am. I found the WifiRanger set up even for me relatively easy.

[uncle_bob]

Originally Posted by RosenBob

Interesting. We’ve never had a problem with the power supply over two camping seasons, about 5 months living in the AS. Makes me wonder how you wired yours. We continue to like ours. Even if it’s only useful in campgrounds where boosting is not really needed, the control panel and ability to log into the campground wifi in one place to give all our devices access to our local AS wifi, that’s worth having to me. You are no doubt more savvy about setting up local networks than I am. I found the WifiRanger set up even for me relatively easy.

Hi

Well the dealer did do a pretty fancy job wiring it in. +12 goes to a fused 12V line and ground goes to a busbar. Pretty exotic .... Past that everything is a WiFi Ranger wiring harness.

If you only got yours recently, you missed two rounds of factory recalls on the power supply bricks.

Bob

[Jaxon]

Originally Posted by NapaFoodGal

What is the best hot spot and wifi extender to use when there is limited or no signal when camping? Do you need both?

Typing in your topic into the search function will give you plenty of ideas using the heading "posts". If you use "Threads", you'll get a bazillion threads that you'll have to sift through.

A definite relevant question for those on the road!

[brendakerry]

What is the model of your weboost? Need one where I don’t have to drill holes